All Hallows’ Eve

For years we celebrated Susan’s birthday with a Halloween costume party. Many fond memories (and photographs) document that chapter in Rosslyn’s recent past, but today I share instead a different sort of retrospective. This spooky-yet-intriguing holiday, more traditionally known as All Hallows’ Eve (aka La Toussaint in France and Ognissanti in Italy), is threaded subtly through our story. This evening I’ve gathered for you a couple of touchstones…

In those early years at Rosslyn we were able to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve twice each season because local trick-or-treat night and Susan’s birthday fête never seemed to overlap. The entrance photo above and the blurry Jack-o’-lantern threesome below, recorded fuzzily fourteen years ago, recall the night when neighbors’ costumed children paraded up to swap clever costumery for candy. I’m 100% certain that we enjoyed this tradition as much as (or even more than?!) the children.

This next image, a clever but disturbing demonstration of combinatorial creativity for sure, was executed (yes, pun intended) by Hroth in 2922 when he was starting the icehouse rehabilitation.

I’ve dubbed this creative-but-maudlin jack-o’-lantern (designed by Hroth Ottosen) “hatchet head”. Spooky, right? (Source: Happy Halloween 2022)

Accompanying that post was this micropoetic nod to Hroth’s All Hallows’ Eve pumpkin character.

Halloween Haiku
Halloo, hatchet head,
too-too cool jack-o’-lantern, 
warty but sporty.

Now I will end where I began…

All Hallows’ Eve, By Any Other Name

I suggested above not just that All Hallows’ Eve but also La Toussaint and Ognissanti subtly thread through Susan and my story. Back in 2001, in those early months of our still new and intoxicating courtship, when I still lived in Paris and Susan lived in New York City, a spontaneous reunion in Paris, Milan, and Cinque Terre wove All Hallows’ Eve into the very DNA of our relationship. But I’m getting ahead of myself… for now, at least.

Happy Halloween!